Tornado watch in effect until 6 p.m. in Southeast Texas.

Updated 1:04 pm, Saturday, December 21, 2013

Clouds hang over the Beaumont skyline Saturday morning as a tornado watch is in effect for Jefferson and 38 other counties.

Clouds hang over the Beaumont skyline Saturday morning as a tornado watch is in effect for Jefferson and 38 other counties.

Photo: Michael Rivera

Tornado watch in effect until 6 p.m. in Southeast Texas.

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A tornado watch has been issued for 39 Texas counties including Jefferson, Orange and Hardin.

The watch is in effect until 6 p.m.

Other Southeast Texas counties included in the watch area are Chambers, Jasper, Liberty, Newton, and Galveston.

A tornado watch is issued when conditions are favorable for the development of tornados as well as other severe weather including thunderstorms, hail and strong wind, said National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones.

A watch is different than a warning, which is issued if a tornado has been reported or indicated on weather radars.

Whereas a watch can last for hours and spread over a large area, in this case including most of Louisiana and a wide swath of East Texas, a warning is of shorter duration, normally a half an hour or less and might be confined to a single county, "depending on how fast the suspected tornado is moving," Jones said.

The turbulent weather is in advance of a cold front forecast to move through the region Sunday morning. A mass of moist air over the area provides fuel for storms.

"That should clear our everything for the week," Jones said, adding that nice weather is expected for Christmas Day, when the high temperature is forecast to be about 61 with partly cloudy skies and a low about 41 degrees.